Lawn Dogs takes place in the secure, upscale community of Camelot Gardens,
where Devon Stockard (Mischa Barton in her first feature film) and her parents
have just arrived. We learn that she has congenital heart problems, but is now
OK because of a pacemaker. Mom and dad are trying to fit in, but Devon shows
her true (and odd) colors immediately. When she and her mother are baking
cookies for charity, her job is to push two raisins into each cookie, but when
a fly lands on one, she pushes in the fly. Devon is very much a free spirit.
When she sees her mother having sex with a college kid, she reacts by peeing
down her father's windshield, then climbing out on her roof and stripping,
then howling at the moon. Thus, Misha Barton did nudity in this film, but she was 11 years
old at the time.

Devon forms a friendship with Sam Rockwell, the "Lawn Dog" who mows lawns
between sunrise and 5 pm, when all such undesirables are run out by the
resident head of security. Devon thinks she has found a kindred spirit, and
incorporates Sam into the fairy tale she creates to make her life more
bearable. The two become close friends, but with the security officer of Camelot Gardens
after Rockwell, and two college boys hating him, it is clear that their
friendship will work only as long as it remains their secret.

Sam lives in a trailer on county property just outside Camelot Gardens. On
the way home from work one day, he stops on a one lane bridge, strips
completely naked, and jumps into the river. He has a large audience by the
time he walks back to his truck, and Angie Harmon likes what she sees, so Sam
and Angie decide to get better acquainted. While Sam is good for sex, Angie
won't be seen with him, so they head back to his trailer. This all happens on
the very same day when young Devon becomes determined to see Sam's home. When
Devon finds his trailer and peeks in the window, Harmon has just finished
having sex with him, and she sees what we see - Harmon's breast.

Mischa Barton had to carry most of the film, and she did so effortlessly.
Sam Rockwell was also excellent. There is a great deal of humor in the film, but IMDb calls it a drama
because the main thrust of the film is the contrast between the lower class
but classy Sam Rockwell, and the upper class, no-class residents of Camelot
Gardens.

DVD INFO

No features except the original
trailer

the transfer is anamorphically
enhanced, and is not especially vivid

NUDITY REPORT

Sam Rockwelll - the whole monty

Angie Harmon - one breast

Scoop's notes

You might really like this film if you have a
taste for the offbeat. It has a surreal charm, and a certain magic to
it. It may not be a great film, but represents some great filmmaking
in many ways, and I liked it a lot. It was directed by John Duigan,
the Australian director who did Sirens. Duigan hasn't ever struck
paydirt with a big hit, but I think he might if he'd move a hair closer to the
mainstream. He has lots of talent, but he's stayed with offbeat and
stylized material which is often coldly satirical, although Lawn Dogs
and Sirens do have warmth in the sympathetic characters. Lawn Dogs
polarizes the world into those with magic and warmth, and those with
mechanical and shallow lives. This sounds a bit juvenile when I
describe it, but you have to understand that the movie is realized
through a child's eyes, so the simplistic black-and-white thinking
makes sense in context.

The
Critics Vote ...

Super-panel consensus out of four stars: two
stars. James Berardinelli 2.5/4, Roger Ebert 1.5/4. Reviewers were sharply divided on this movie.
Ebert and Berardinelli panned it, but they were in the
minority. (See below.)

Box Office Mojo.
It never reached more
than twelve theaters and grossed about $100,000. The budget
was more than $5 million.

The meaning of the IMDb
score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics,
or a C- from our system.
Films rated below five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one
and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

Our own
guideline:

A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.

B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better
is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at
least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial
success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with
good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the
critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also
assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the
box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of
the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people
had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)

C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but
will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of
movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are
indistinguishable to you.

C
means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who
like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others
probably will not.

C- indicates that it we found it to
be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film
rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of
film, but films with this rating should be approached with
caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent
or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C-
and an E are indistinguishable to you.

D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. We don't score films below C- that
often, because we like movies and we think that most of them
have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that,
you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.
Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor
popular acceptance.

E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre.

F means that the film is not only unappealing
across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this
film is a C+, a very interesting
and offbeat film.